Last fall, the Trump Administration approved a new rule allowing consumers to use Affordable Care Act tax subsidies to purchase short-term health insurance plans. These substandard plans can charge people with pre-existing conditions higher premiums and aren’t required to cover essential health benefits like maternity, mental health, or hospital services. Healthcare advocates have warned that the proliferation of these junk plans steers healthy people away from the long-term insurance market, which in turn drives up prices for sicker consumers. Short-term plans also put buyers at risk for financial devastation in case of an accident or an illness like cancer; for example, one short-term insurance plan buyer faced $200,000 in bills after their insurer declined to cover the vast majority of their heart surgery costs.

Democrats in the House and Senate have introduced the Protecting Americans with Pre-existing Conditions Act (H.R.986/S.466) to prohibit the use of ACA subsidies to pay for junk plans. Let's call our Members of Congress and ask them to vocally support this legislation.

Today's Action: Ask our MoCs to Support HR.986/S.466

Call both Senators:

Senator Patty Murray: DC - 202-224-2621 Seattle - 206-553-5545

Senator Maria Cantwell: DC - 202-224-3441 Seattle - 206-220-6400

Call your Representative:

Rep. Pramila Jayapal--DC 202-225-3106; Seattle 206-674-0040

Rep. Adam Smith--DC 202-225-8901; Renton 425-793-5180

Sample Script:

"Hi, my name is {NAME}, and I'm calling from {CITY, ZIP} to ask {MoC} to support the Protecting Americans with Pre-existing Conditions Act. I'm concerned about the Trump Administration's attempts to undermine our health care system with junk health insurance plans, and I want to hear how {MoC} is going to help stop them from this attack."

Bonus Action: Washington Mother's Day Call to Action

Here is the update on the plan for a Washington Mother's Day Call To Action. We are requesting your participation and support by blasting out the Facebook page and event and asking your contacts, individuals and organizations to share this with their constituencies, state-wide.

This call to action began as a grass roots campaign started by random people all over the country, who are now reaching out to local and state immigrant rights / immigrant advocacy leaders and groups to unite, to shine the light on family separation and child detention, to encourage people to donate to bond funds this Mother's Day, and to get people to speak with family and friends gathered on Sunday and talk about the inhumanity of the current administration's atrocious policies and their impact on our immigrant brothers and sisters.

Please see their website for further information and terrific resources for families to use:

We chose this single beneficiary because the Bond Fund is in need, and because it results in the release of mothers to be reunited with their families. We'd like to expand our fund raising efforts to include the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and the NWDCR (La Resistencia) going forward.

2. We are calling for people in the Seattle area to support the Seattle Democratic Socialists event on Mother's Day, Sunday night May 12th at 5:00, at Optimism Brewing Company, which is also raising funds for the WAISN Fair Fight Bond Fund and seeks to educate about immigration.

3. We are calling on Washingtonians to speak up and bring up this administration's policies which are harming families and children by separation and detention, and talk about these issues with their families, neighbors, communities. We want to inspire people to keep the spotlight on the separations until these policies are changed.

After Mother's Day, we will encourage more action through support of our immigrant leaders and communities, who are already planning a series of events and campaigns, to keep the heat on.

More Events

From Past to Present: A Talk with Dr. Angela Davis

May 17, 2019, 4:00 PM

The University of Washington Bothell's Black Student Union and Campus Events Board are excited to host "From Past to Present: A Talk with Dr. Angela Davis."

At this event, Dr. Davis will speak to how our past correlates with our present. Furthermore, she will share how we, as individuals, can come together as one to further cultivate social and systematic change so that we can each better answer the question: "How can we use our privilege to act in allyship with others as a united front?"